The Truth Behind A Fairy Tale
by Always-Learning
Summary: Fairy tales are more than mythical stories about princesses and dragons. They are more than the happy endings everyone seems to put them with. And what's Ellie's fairy tale? Or Joel's? Spoilers, duh. AND fairy tales.


The Truth Behind A Fairy Tale

**Chapter One: The Child In Red**

_"The way to read a fairy tale is to throw yourself in."_

_-W.H. Auden_

* * *

_Dearest Andrew,_

_I know you are small, and that you won't get this soon, but do know that fairy tales have helped me as a child just as I knew they will help you._

_Fairy tales hold incredible power. They bring us hope, they bring us beauty, and they are beauty itself, just as they are magic. Fairy tales give us strength. They also inspire and encourage. Why, this book wouldn't be in print without fairy tales!_

_So, my darling, when you get a little bit older, read this. And reread it as you grow. Please. My days are numbered, I hate to say. Please enjoy my last stories, Andrew, my darling. That is my final wish._

_So, I bid you farewell, my darling. I hope you enjoy my stories, Andrew. I also hope you enjoy this book, to everyone else who reads my lovely stories. I hope the angels treat you well._

_-K.E.Y._

_About the Author_

_Klara Elisabeth Young died on October 31, 2013. Her death remains a mystery, and a _The Truth Behind A Fairy Tale _was her last book, found by her sister in a package sent to her nephew, Andrew. She grew up in a small town in Montana, along with her sisters, Iris, Damiana, Georgia, and Abigail. She found her love of writing at a young age, and grew up to be a New York Times bestselling author for the majority of her books. Her most popular are _Hansel and Gretel: The Untold Story of How They Died _and _The Red Soaked Path_._

* * *

Ellie closed the book. It seemed like a good one. She reminisced back to when Marlene used to read a really old fairy tale to her, something about Grimm. She put her backpack down, and ran the hard back book over her fingers. It was black, with silver lettering on the bind. 'The Truth Behind A Fairy' by K.E.Y. it said. It was missing the dust cover, if it even had one. Ellie opened the book, and was about to read a paragraph or two before Joel interrupted her.

"'Ey, Ellie! I found somethin'!" Joel shouted from downstairs. Ellie quickly slipped the fairy tale book inside her backpack, and adjusted the heavy load on her shoulders again. She strolled down the stair case. Joel was waiting for her at the bottom.

"What is it?" she inquired, jumping off of the last step. Ellie looked at him, fully curious. Joel made a gesture for her to follow. Just the atmosphere, and the smile on Joel's lips, told her that they weren't in trouble.

The house they were scavenging was already in ruins. All of the food, ammo, water, and other necessary survival items were already stolen. The house was in shambles; the furniture was broken and the ceiling and walls had stains from God only knows what. That fact of the matter: nothing was there that they could use. All of the houses they crawled through were the same. At least this house had a good selection of books. Ellie wondered who lived there before the outbreak. Hell… she wondered what life was like before the infection.

"It seems like the people who used to live 'ere had someone your age," he explained, walking into what Ellie had guessed to be a laundry room. A dirty grey basket was knocked over, and a few pieces of clothing, covered in dirt and grim, were spilt next to it. But Joel seemed more excited about a light blue basket. There looked like really girly clothes. But, she noticed, something bright red, and it stuck out from the dirty background.

"Fall's right around the corner. It'd be wise to get warm clothes while you still can," Joel said, and he held up the bright red garment. It was a hoodie, plain and red, with the drawstring still attached. There was a little grim on the left elbow, but other than that it looked fine. In fact, it looked… new.

"I'll be easier to spot," she pointed out. Red was a bright color. But, then she remembered how easily it is to dirty their clothes. It hadn't even been an hour when her favorite shirt had first gotten ruined. And it was red, too. She grabbed it, and slipped the heavy backpack off of her shoulders.

She tried it on, and it fit just right. Noticing how warm it was, and how she wasn't able to feel the cold outside, Ellie said, "I'll keep it on."

Joel nodded. "Look around. There might be some other stuff, too." Ellie slipped the backpack on, and that was very uneventful. It kind of took away to what happened next. It was a horrendous thing that happened, like the events that happen in all beginnings.

A gunshot.

It wasn't at them. It didn't break any windows, or anything for that matter. It was just a single gunshot; enough not to hurt them, but enough to make them aware and paranoid. You might even call it odd, for how could one little gunshot hurt someone so much, even when they weren't hit?

Joel crouched behind the door, and Ellie squeezed herself next to the old washing machine. They couldn't hear anyone. But that meant nothing.

"Go! Go! Go!"

That wasn't Joel, and that wasn't Ellie. A hoard of people surrounded the house. The capitol city wasn't that far away. Were they soldiers or bandits?

Joel listened. There was a screen door next to the shelf with the cleaning supplies on it, like detergent and bleach. A person clad in black rushed past the door, and out of their sight. He was breathing heavily.

Joel quietly crawled towards the door. He'd have to reveal their location in order to get him, but when the strangers busted into the house, he jumped.

Kicking the door open with vigor, Joel shot the man in between the eyes. There were shouts. The strangers realized someone was there. A man screamed into the walkie-talkie the corpse had. Joel left it; technology was useless with no electricity.

Ellie followed him. A gunshot whizzed mere centimeters from her head. She ducked, and hid behind a trash can. "Ellie!" Joel shouted. He gestured to the woods, and she nodded. He threw a smoke bomb at a nearby bandit, and he and Ellie made a mad dash towards the woods.

The trees were tall, like the skyscrapers of the city. The low-lying branches made for good protection, but horrible terrain to run it. The greens whirled past them, in a sense that the hues were dancing. They didn't have time to gaze, because the near invisible path they followed lead to a clearing with fallen trees. Wood made for great waist-high cover.

Joel crouched behind a large oak, and listened. The strangers were away, far, far away. They must've ran faster or longer than he thought. "Ellie," he sighed, "I think we're safe."

"Great. I was hoping they had some shoes," she mused, pulling on the back of her worn-out pair of shoes for emphasizes. "Now, where are we?"

Joel hadn't thought of that. Shifting so that he was comfortably leaning on the oak, he looked around. The trees surrounding them, like a wall. The grass was a bright shade of green, which was odd, because in their weeks of living in the town, there hadn't been a drop of rain. He began cursing himself; they can't go back, but they don't know where they're at, either.

"I don't know," he admitted, "but we'll find a way out." He stood up. Joel's bag was about the same weight as Ellie's, but he was older and stronger.

He heard some rustling, probably from a bush, and a light click. Was it Ellie? He turned around, but his fears when confirmed. It wasn't Ellie. It was a kid. It had a gun pointed at them.

"Who are you?"

**A/N: Heeeellooooo. I honestly don't know what I'm doing anymore! I think this is shit. It's not my best character wise (I swear in my head Joel's talking like Smokey the Bear), but I think story wise I am rockin' it! **

**Yes, it's based off of several fairy tales. Don't want to spoil it, but this isn't you Disney-fyed little kid fairy tale. This is your old-school 1800s gory Brothers' Grimm fairy tale. So, yeah. Just giving you a heads up.**

**Also, I NEED BETAS! Note the 's'. My grammar is usually shit, and so was my spelling before spell check. SO IF YOU'RE A BETA AND UP FOR SPOILERS PLEASE GIVE ME A MESSAGE!**

**And a special thanks to CrimsonButterfly726 and Rosie Bluejay, for the advice and listening to my rambles!**

**Oh, and any tips, and I mean ANYTHING, to help me write better as Joel, or in a southern accent, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ZOMBIES TELL ME.**

**Anyway, I'll try to not to have any more author's note, and if I do, make them short and candid (very unlike this one). **

**I know you guys don't like OCs, so I won't put any in here (except for Klara and her fam, but she's not directly in the story.). ALL OF THE CHARACTERS ARE DIRECT REFERENCES TO FAIRY TALES CHARACTERS! So think metaphors and shit.**

**That's all.**

**I hope you enjoy. -bows- Please review!**

**-Tsiyc**

**Ps- Soooo, I've been hearing that there are new groups are started up to be jack asses and treating people like shit because their stories don't follow the rules. If you are one of those people, please fuck off kindly, sir or madam. If I get any reviews like that, I swear shit's gonna go down. Zombie shit. Like Cordyceps Brain fuck shit.**

**Otherwise, enjoy. c:**


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